Do Deep Mantle Plumes Explain Hotspot Volcanism, or Is the Plate Hypothesis Right?

Whether anomalous volcanic hotspots such as Hawaii and Yellowstone are fed by narrow plumes rising from the core-mantle boundary, or are instead explained by shallow, plate-tectonic-driven processes, is contested as the Great Plume Debate; critics led by Don Anderson, Gillian Foulger and Warren Hamilton argue the plume hypothesis has not reliably predicted new hotspots since its 1971 introduction, while the rival plate hypothesis attributes the same volcanism to near-surface plate processes rather than a deep-mantle source.